Misunderstood

Are you confused by my shape or my size,
Misunderstood, because my heart is the prize,
Does my wisdom and knowledge frighten you,
Misunderstood, because I'm a strong black woman,
The way God intended me to be,
Are you skeptical about who I am,
Misunderstood, because I am a blessing to a good man,
How many channels do we have to flip through in life,
Always misunderstood because we want love in our life.
Nothing in this life is free
but love does not come with a price tag,
Misunderstood,
Just want someone to love me.

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Editor’s Note

The number one question our editors receive is—what do the editors and judges look for when judging the contest? The number one answer we give is creativity. Unlike prose, writing composed in everyday language, poetry is considered a creative art and requires a different type of effort and a certain level of depth. Of the thousands of poems entered in each contest, the ones that catch our judges’ eyes are the ones that remove us, even just slightly, from the scope of everyday life by using language that is interesting, specific, vivid, obscure, compelling, figurative, and so on. Oftentimes, poems are pulled aside for a second look based simply on certain words that intrigued the reader. So first and foremost, be sure your poetry is written using creative language. Take general ideas and make them personal. In his infamous book De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Wrong, W. D. Snodgrass imparts, “We cannot honestly discuss or represent our lives, any more than our poems, without using ideational language.”